Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits...
-
Upload
sherman-matthews -
Category
Documents
-
view
214 -
download
0
Transcript of Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits...
![Page 1: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Characters in Fiction
![Page 2: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Character Traits
Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy
Character traits help us to define and understand a character
Internal quality (ex. Selfishness) determines external behavior
![Page 3: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Characterization Process
5 ways in which an author can teach you about the characters1. Actions by characters reveal their nature
▪ What we do defines who we are
2. Author’s descriptions of characters▪ Appearance & Environment can reveal
socioeconomic status
3. What the character says▪ Speeches move plot along but also allow us
to draw conclusions about character’s motives
![Page 4: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Characterization Process
4. What others say about the character▪ Listen to what other characters say and
what it reveals about a given character
5. The author (as narrator) presents judgments about the character
▪ Usually doesn’t happen in fiction—most apt to happen in a play
![Page 5: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Types of Characters
Round (usually the hero) Round characters undergo some sort of
change, making them DYNAMIC characters▪ Author presents enough detail to make them
full, lifelike, and memorable▪ Change may be shown in
▪ Actions▪ Realization of new strength▪ Acceptance of new conditions or the need to make
changes▪ The discovery of unrecognized truth
![Page 6: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Types of Characters
Flat Flat characters do not grow or change;
they stay the same, making them STATIC characters▪ Usually act to highlight the changes of the
dynamic characters Stock Characters: representatives of a
class or group—stereotypes!▪ Insensitive father, interfering mother; greedy
politician
![Page 7: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Other terms to know
Protagonist: a round character, who is clearly the main character in a story, but who lacks the qualities of a hero.
Antagonist: someone or something that opposes the goals of the protagonist (the bad guy)
Archetype: the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or universal symbol; prototype (the hero, the mother figure, the villain, the scapegoat, etc.-can also be theme)
![Page 8: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Antagonist
Honesty and Integrity
Mother and Maggie Dee/ Wangero
Self posturing / artificiality
Protagonist
Self-Sacrifice Rapacity
Authentic relationship to a heritage of things made for “everyday use”
Ethnic Pretentiousness
aesthetisismutilitarianism
![Page 9: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
“Everyday Use”Ingrained habits may be given up if justice makes a greater demand.
or
A person whose honesty and tolerance have long made her susceptible to the strong will of another may reach a point where she will exert her own will for the sake of justice.
![Page 10: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
“Cathedral” (1983)
Raymond Carver
![Page 11: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Raymond Carver (1938-1988) Influential short story writer of the last decades of
the 20th century; influence comparable to Hemingway’s in the earlier part of the century
Born in Clatskanie, Oregon, raised in Pacific Northwest, married girlfriend right after high school (divorced in 1982)
Blue-color background: worked as janitor, sawmill worker (like his father); he often wrote about lower middle class workers
Struggled with alcoholism, like his father; quit drinking in 1977
![Page 12: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
![Page 13: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Raymond Carver (1938-1988) got college degree and received M.F.A. from
prestigious University of Iowa Writers Workshop (from which Flannery O’Connor had graduated)
Taught at several universities, including Syracuse University in New York
Married poet Tess Gallagher in 1988; died that year of lung cancer
![Page 14: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Raymond Carver (1938-1988) His style has been called “minimalist” for its
simple, spare narration; Carver rejected the term because it “smacks of smallness of vision and execution.”
Some early stories are bleak but later ones, like “Cathedral,” developed a more positive, spiritual dimension
![Page 15: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Vision vs. Reality
“Cathedral” is about “vision vs. reality” in several senses Vision of cathedrals vs. narrator’s drab reality (job,
married life) Vision achieved in spite of real blindness Television (mass-media) vs. real life Art (drawing) vs. real life/ T.V.
![Page 16: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Narrator’s Reality
Marriage: “My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man and looked at me. I had the feeling she didn’t like what she saw. I shrugged” (177); “My wife and I hardly ever went to bed at the same time” (180)
Job: “How long had I been in my present position? (Three years.) Did I like my work? (I didn’t.) Was I going to stay with it? (What were the options?)” (178)
![Page 17: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
ChartresCathedral of Notre-Dame
![Page 18: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
ChartresCathedral of Notre-Dame
![Page 19: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Cathedrals: Narrator’s Description (2) “They’re massive. They’re built of stone.
Marble, too, sometimes. In those olden days, when they built cathedrals, men wanted to be close to God. In those olden days, God was an important part of everyone’s life. You could tell this from their cathedral-building” (181).
![Page 20: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Reims
![Page 21: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Carver’s Style
Simple, direct Colloquial- language is casual and conversational: it's the difference
between "What are you going to do?" and "Whatchagonnado?"
Statements of what happens, how things work (176, last ¶): “I saw my wife laughing as she parked the car. . . .”
Carver shows the minute details of reality to help us to see Similar to the narrator and his wife helping the
blind man see the details of the cathedral, the face
![Page 22: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Indirect Characterization & Direct Characterization
Direct Characterization Author/narrator makes clear statements about
the character’s personality and what the character is like▪ Examples of Carver’s direct characterization of
Robert▪ “This blind man was late forties”▪ “a heavy-set”▪ “balding man”▪ “with stooped shoulders, as if he carried a great weight there”
Find 3 other examples of Direct Characterization with your table group.
![Page 23: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Indirect Characterization & Direct Characterization
Indirect Characterization the writer reveals information about a character and his
personality through that character's thoughts, words, and actions, along with how other characters respond to that character, including what they think and say about him.
Think of it this way…direct characterization is a “tell”, while indirect characterization is a “show”Find 3examples of Indirect Characterization of with your table group.
Consider: Why does the narrator’s wife want Robert to visit? What factors lead to that decision? How do we know how Robert feels? How does the author hint at Robert’s mental state throughout the story?
![Page 24: Trait: a quality of mind or habit of behavior Ex: self centered; sloppy; needy Character traits help us to define and understand a character Internal.](https://reader034.fdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022051621/5697bfa61a28abf838c981ad/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Indirect Characterization & Direct Characterization Direct characterization moves plot along more quickly Indirect characterization engages the reader’s
imagination more
WRITING: First, determine what you deem to be Robert’s major
character trait—the one that really defines who he is. Then, discuss which method of characterization is
more effective in “Cathedral”. Write out a one paragraph explanation of which
method of characterization is more effective to determine the major character trait. Be specific. You must include at least two direct quotes
from the story to support your opinion